iMAC Glossy Screens

How do you guy's with the iMac manage with the glossy screen?

I made a trip out to the local Apple store with every intention of getting a 27" i7 but just couldn't partly because of the screen.

Sure it looks good but print matching must be a swine. Even one of the assistants said that I'd probably have to use another screen as my main editing display and use the Mac screen as the secondary screen for toolbars etc. What a waste.

I'd love to go down the Mac route (as I don't like Windows 7) but Apple, with it's current product range, just doesn't seem to have what I want unless I go for a Mac PRO and then the price becomes laughable for the performance.

As well as the screen issue I'm also irritated that they don't offer an nVidia graphics option that can make use of GPU acceleration in CS5.

The price of £1,808 ($2,857) is also crazy high when compared to the $2,199 offered in the US.

In all I'm very disappointed and will have to go down the PC route again unless I can find inspiration.

Sorry for the rant.

With the iMacs you have to be able to control the ambient lighting, which can take a bit of thought.

The gpu "acceleration" of Photoshop isn't all that meaningful, except for PixelBender. If you want to see gpu use in an image editor, you should take a look at Pixelmator. It's much faster (but less versatile) than Photoshop. Aperture also uses the gpu pretty heavily, particularly for its brushes. What OS X has going for it is OpenCL and if application programmers leverage it you can get a lot of work out of the gpu. Capture One 6 uses it very nicely. Adobe is apparently not interested in it, though. Too bad, it would really speed Photoshop and Lightroom up.

I am also getting into Video and Motion Graphics with Adobe After Effects and Premiere. Premiere takes massive advantage of the GPU acceleration and After Effects uses it some.

I can understand controlling the ambient light but surely the contract is much higher on a glossy screen as well - how can you compensate for this?

Nightstalker wrote in post #11435545
I am also getting into Video and Motion Graphics with Adobe After Effects and Premiere. Premiere takes massive advantage of the GPU acceleration and After Effects uses it some.

I can understand controlling the ambient light but surely the contract is much higher on a glossy screen as well - how can you compensate for this?

Prices are higher than in the US because of your country's taxes. Maybe you could 'visit' one that doesn't have value added taxes and buy one there. You could mail your box, receipts and papers back to yourself so it looks like you just took it with you to work

Maybe things have changed since I used to use Adobe, but I believe AE uses the GPU far more than Premiere, particularly effects and rendering to RAM. Many of AE effects were rewritten to take advantage of GPU acceleration too.

As far as glare and reflections, iMac's can have them. However, working in professional video it is always recommended you work in controlled environments. You never what to work in a brightly lit office or where there are a lot of windows letting in the sunlight. Every studio I've been to has limited lighting. If you can remove lights from behind you and can dim the main lights (not dark mind you), you'll have no problems with reflections. I believe you can also change LR, Premiere and AE interface - if you change the interface to a lighter one, there will be less chance of catching a reflection. Some people are just hyper aware of them and will consciously or unconsciously look for them though.

I decided against the iMac and today went out and bought myself a decent PC the highlights of which are :

Core i7 950 3.07Ghz
12Gb Corsair Dominator RAM (1600)
nVidia GTX 470 graphics
128Gb SSD for OS
1TB Western Digital Caviar Black
Windows 7 64bit Professional

All this came in £500 below the iMac price - in all I'm happy.

That's a fine system. Does that price include an IPS-H screen? If not, you'll have to add another $400 - $1,200 (in USD) to that price. Though the iMac is expensive, and did not offer what you were looking for, it by no means is priced outrageously. If you use the Education discount (most people do regardless of qualification) and upgrade memory from a third party, the prices become very reasonable. The problem for many people (beside not being able to pick a choose parts) is the cost of the 27" screen. If Apple were to use a regular consumer grade monitor, it would cut at least $600 from the base price.

The important thing here is that you got what you wanted though. Switching to Apple should be because you enjoy the OS and want the ergonomics of a Mac. Not because Mac's are 'better' or 'cooler' than PC's. Hope you enjoy your new computer.

Yeah, I understand that Maxxum, but I had already invested in a Dell u2410 IPS screen earlier in the year so that expense was already out of the way. The price statement was about the Mac PRO - 4 core Xeon, 640Gb HDD and just 3Gb memory for £1999!!!

In fact it made me feel that I was paying the best part of £900 for a screen that I didn't need and that I wasn't happy with (glossy). Even the sales assistant / guru (whatever they are called) even said that when Apple introduced the glossy screens they had loads of photographers / graphic designers going mad over the same issue. His advice to me was to use my current screen as the toolbar screen.

I like Apple products and wouldn't knock them but on this occasion I could not find what I needed in their limited range.

An i7 mac tower system at about 50% the price (to discount the removal of the screen) would have taken my money without a doubt but the all-in-one iMac just didn't fit the bill.

MaxxuM wrote in post #11439721
Prices are higher than in the US because of your country's taxes. Maybe you could 'visit' one that doesn't have value added taxes and buy one there. You could mail your box, receipts and papers back to yourself so it looks like you just took it with you to work

Believe it or not, outside of the US Macs are often more expensive.
Here in NZ, even with out sales tax we pay considerably more than you do in the US.
A base model Mac Pro falls nicely in my budget in the US, but is way out side it here, and the iMac's are just stupidly prices, especially if you want a high end model.
Some of the Mac Books are well priced, especially from the Ausie based retailers (who source the stock in Aus, not locally), but once you start adding extra spec the prices go through the roof.
Dell and HP do the same thing though, I've spec'd the same Dell through the US website and locally, and the US machine was cheaper.

If you recall, I responded to this topic a while back ago. If you add New Zealand GST to the base price of an Apple computer it comes out exactly the same price as in the US. New Zealand does not charge a GST, or not the full amount, to items that are already charged a VAT or GST in the EU and a few other countries. Some computer parts are manufactured in tax free zones or not charged fully because they come from countries that share 'deals' with some countries. I'm not saying that it isn't expensive though. It's just that many countries charge flat taxes on some imports and not so much on others.

It isn't a conspiracy. It's simply a matter of country's doing business. It sucks, but if it makes you feel any better, our Congress has been toying with the idea of adding a VAT here too. I guess sucking us dry with regular taxes wasn't enough.

We do pay GST, currently 15%.
Last time we did this exercise it was with the old Core 2 Models, yes they were a good price (although they didn't start out that way).

The new i5 and i7 models however are not currently competitive, although that may change again as the local agent has recently lost sole rights as a distributor.